LFP - Survey

[Mask_of_winter]

I noticed a vast majority of the community is either offering to run 4e dnd or looking to join a 4e group. How about taking advantage of the dozens of great RPG's out there that nobody dare trying in this community folks??!!

I'm in EST time zone (GMT -5) and I have 4hrs to run a game on weekdays from 6 or 7 pm til 11pm.

I'm in my 30's, I've been a GM for almost 20 years. I'm a story driven GM, I like to help drive the story forward with action and dramatic events. I take pride in making sure players are having a good time.

On FG2 I like to be prepared (maps, tokens and personalities) but I am not a big fan of voice chat. I feel it is a distraction and that it is easier to get and stay in character with text chat only.

I'm a big fan of Savage Worlds because it is light on the rules so it is easy for everybody to get a handle on things. There arent 200 rules that will stop you from using your imagination to perform something heroic and spectacular. In other words, rules, technicalities and dice rolling does not bog down the flow of the story, drama or combat.

I'm very interested in running Zombie Run - Savage Worlds:
(In the vein of "Dawn of the Dead" (R) and Eden Studio's "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" (TM) comes Zombie Run! Your band of heroes must venture across America in the wake of a zombie outbreak. Survival is the first order of business, and the weird people, places, and things you'll meet along the way aren't often going to help. Zombie Run includes detailed scrounging tables, a mini-campaign suitable for many nights' adventures, and an epic conclusion that should prove a real "blast" for the whole party! Zombie Run is a 42-page modern day adventure for Savage Worlds with lots of full-color zombie Figure Flats. Characters can start at Novice Rank or higher as decided by the GM. Zombie Run was written by Jonathan Pierson, and illustrated by Rico Pollard and Niklas Brandt!)

I would also consider running any Savage Worlds settings (particularly Deadlands, Daring Tales of Adventures, Daring Tales of the space lane, The day after Ragnarok, Necropolis, Weird Wars: Tour of Darkness and even a homebrew inspired by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez movies involving gangsters and desperados)

Shadowrun
Dark Heresy
World of Darkness
Exalted
Scion

Speak up! If we can get enough players to agree on something, I'll run it.

[Belizan]

Sukiyaki Western Django the RPG, eh?

Ironically enough, I have a very similar post/thread a little above/below this one. As it turns out I'm in a very similar position 8). Although I'm not a fan of Savage Worlds as I feel the system lacks the granularity to model a world to a sufficient level of detail to be satisfying. I tend towards more involved systems over the beautifully simplistic.

My friend is a huge Shadowrun fan, and therein, I think he and I would be up for a Shadowrun game. I'm not sure I know what Dark Heresy is, unless it's that Savage Worlds thing. WoD is a little like the fantasy books one liked as a kid. Not sure I want to touch it 8). The WoD system is kinda messed up as well, now that I think about it. I can't remember much about Exalted, and I'm not sure I even know what Scion is, so I can't comment much other then to point at my comment about WoD in general ;).

That being said, we had already planned on posting in your zombie thread 8). Given the various interested parties in a less mainstream game, it would be nice if we could manage to get at least one game off the ground.

Why doesn't anyone play Ars Magica? 8).

[Mask_of_winter]

I beg to differ about Savage Worlds. You can either use pages of detailed rules and mechanics to describe a world or a scene or you can use your imagination. For a player, the mechanics behind a scene matters very little in my opinion. Years later, I still have no idea what were the mechanics behind the vilains my character fought but I sure remember how events unfolded and that I didnt have a 5 feet rule, attack of opportunity, action restrictions, and lists of circumstance modifiers to kill my imagination. I just came up with a cool move and got it done.

I guess I'm old school that way.

I'm glad you're interested in the Survival of the Fittest campaign. We are currently recruiting. But then again we use Unisystem and the simplicity of it might bore you. We do not spend a lot of time rolling dice. I put the players in a tense situation where their non-heroic characters have to make choices. Time slot is Saturday afternoon, however we are considering moving it to a weekday.

Let's hope more people like you and I speak up. People ready to break the mold. To open their eyes and realize D&D is not the only fun RPG out there. Games like Shadowrun have been around since the mid 80's. Give something new a try kids, you'll be happy you did.

[Belizan]

Well, it is possible that I just haven't been exposed to Savage Worlds enough. I had downloaded the primer at some point, and was introduced to it at two different points by two different fans of the system for two different campaigns both of which didn't get played more then once (but I did make characters for). So I suppose other then reading the primer, my impressions are based largely on the character generation process. From those exposures, however, it seemed that the system was rather ad hoc. Individual abilities, skills, powers, modifiers, etc. were just sort of made up and assigned costs somewhat arbitrarily. Now, this works great if the GM has a really good sense of what abilities really do what and how much they should cost (either rarity-based or balance-based), and the players and the GM know each other enough and play together often enough that they are all operating from a sort of common lexicon when describing what each character's abilities are, how they work and what they do. This is actually exactly how all of our face to face PnP games are run these days (not using SW though). Online, however, where no one knows anyone, and the communication bandwidth is limited at the best of times, I think it is really quite helpful, possibly even necessary to have a rule system which is sufficiently detailed to describe the capabilities of each character well enough for everyone involved to have a consistent vision of not just what is happening but what is possible as well.

As for the specifics of 3.5, I'm not really a fan, but it is workable, more detailed then most systems, and even with just some light tweaking leveragable to model a grand number of possibilities and worlds.

Also, it's not a question of being bored. I don't look for a system to be the game within the game. I play a lot of different games, and I can see where a great variety of games could be fun. I've even looked over 4e, and can see why people would play it. It's just not the sort of role-playing game I was looking to get involved in right now.

Fundamentally, online, I look for the rulesystem to portray a reasonably consistent model of the universe which can be relatively unambiguously understood by all parties even though their level of experience with each other may be very limited. I look for the system to model the distinctions between the player's characters to the extent that each player can feel that their character is unique and distinctive (that is modeled in the system, beyond the RP distinctions the player's create between the various characters). And finally, particularly for campaigns where players have an expectation of their characters improving over time, I look for the system to arbitrate equitably how that advancement should take place (preferably in a "controlled" or measured manner to keep characters from "unrealistically" powering up beyond the capacity of the game setting to contain in an interesting fashion).

In the end, good players and a good GM can play any system and make it both work and be fun. That having been said, however, an interesting system doesn't hurt either ;).

[sabs]

Who doesn't like shadowrun.
I would be highly interested in playing in this order:

1) A shadowrun game
2) Zombies run!

I could be talked into deadlands, but it would be a pretty serious talking into.

I think sadly I still only own the FASA Shadowrun rules, but I did read over the new rules recently. I don't quite remember the game system, though I know the background extremely well. Are you going with the more traditional hardlined net 1.0? Or going for the more modern wireless net 2.0?

I've always loved riggers, almost always play them if given the choice.

Anyways, if the timeslots setup right, I would really love to play.
I'm East coast time, and I'm usually home from work and obligations at 8pm EST.

[Mask_of_winter]

So 3 interested in Shadowrun so far! Sweet! I could probably find another player.

Matrix 2.0 is the way to go! Wireless makes more sense and I'll tell you why. The hacker or rigger doesnt have to be away from the rest of the group jacked into the Matrix somewhere. He can perform everything and benefit from the security his teammates can offer. Shadowrun 4th edition rules are more streamlined, less dice rolling, especially for hacking and rigging tasks. There is still plenty of options, gear and choices to help define your runner though.

8 to 11pm would work for me. Even until 12pm or later if we play on Thursdays.

[sabs]

Do you know if there's a basic, how to make a character PDF for shadowrun 4.0 out there somewhere? SO I could perhaps make a quick toss at a character.

I probably can't go past midnight on thursdays. That whole wake up early thing the next day.
but Wednesday 8 to 11 or friday would work better for me. Though I can make thursdays work.

[Mask_of_winter]

there are quick start rules here: https://www.shadowrun4.com/quickstart/

but character creation is only in the Shadowrun 4th Edition corebook. PM me, we can problably work something out.

[Belizan]

Those times would work for me as well, I don't know the SR rules at all really, but hopefully that's not an issue.

[Mask_of_winter]

It is not Belizan, especially if you are willing to play a pre-gen characters. The quickstart rules would be a good place to start though. You will learn the basics.
https://www.shadowrun4.com/quickstart/

[Mask_of_winter]

We are recruiting players for a Shadowrun 4th edition campaign set in Chicago. Looks like Wednesdays 8pm EST until 11pm is the time slot. Although different days might be possible.

Here's the link to the calendar: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/index.xcp?id=415